INTERVIEW WITH TIM AND RAIFE
VENUE:
THE PRINCE ALBERT
NOTTING HILL LONDON
DATE: 28th JUNE 1999
In this Interview find out about:
Weird
Happenings in Brighton
How It All Began
The Art of Songwriting
Food
Music Women Religion Government
MDH on the Nineties
'My Drug Hell'a Pretentious Name?
Tim Wants to be a Woman
The Sixties and Vinyl
How low will MDH go to be a Commercial Success?
Future Plans
A: Okay then who the hell are you, how did this all begin and why should we listen to anything you say?
T: Do you mean the very beginning?
A: Lets say from when Raife joined MDH.
T: Ok
R: I basically was looking for a talented person to work with, but unfortunately ended up with Tim. It was a year and half ago, I was weedling my way down through the hundreds of opportunities.
A: Was it strange to come into a band with an album already complete?
R: Very strange, I'm still adapting to the music, the sort of style l play compared with Joe (ex-rhythm king) is very different.
A: And from a song-writing point of view, what about writing a song with a particular person in mind-to eventually change that completely?
T: The songs were not written with any particular person in mind from a playing point of view, but we had our own sound-our own roughness. There was a level of shambolic-ness that l wanted to keep and the problem was that when Raife joined we sounded much too professional, because Raife is lot more tight musically than Paul and l. l've never wanted that, so what we've been doing is pumping drugs into his system...
R: You can't say that my fucking family will be reading this...
T: Actually, that isn't true. We've managed to do most of this without drugs-yoga is the thing. Basically, l want to get the band to a state of looseness akin to a Velvet Undergroundy shambles. And we've finally got it now-basically since perhaps last Saturday. We did a gig and it was completely overnight-got it!
A: Where was this show?
Both: Brighton.
T: Everyone hated us and we didn't give a shit. Three people thought we were any good and actually paid attention.
R: Well six, including us.
T: Yeah we went off really happy, the rest of the audience wanted to hate us it was a weird fucking night.
R: We had a big argument with the support band before we went on. They went on stage late, over-ran and then wanted to play one more song-effectively cutting our set to 25 minutes, so me and Tim had to go up and told them to get off.
T: The promoter had fucked off and most of the crowd had come to see the support band, so they thought they would turn it into their own gig.
R: They actually said 'fuck you' and carried on playing.
T: After having borrowed our bass.
R: So at the end of the show we went onto the stage and ripped all their gear off-threw a chair and stuff.
T: Abused the audience.
A: Could this have escalated into proper violence.
R: We wanted it to, to be honest.
T: I didn't want to hit them-I didn't want to go that far.
R: I knew what we were doing was provoking an attack, or at least a reaction. They could have wanted to kill us. But I think Tim and I actually scared them, we were truly angry.
T: Absolutely fuming, shaking. I mean I went on stage literally shaking with anger. It was the fact they went on into the last song......when they stared me in the eyes like 'you fucking idiot' I just thought 'fuck you-you cunts'. Art school, preposterous wankers, as far as I'm concerned. I've been beaten up-I've been through quite a lot of shit in my life and I don't get that mad generally (into tape machine)-but if someone fucks over the band-I'll fucking break their neck. I'm not afraid of anybody.
R: Well I think we managed to turn the situation around by playing the best gig of our lives.
A: Violence isn't really your thing though? MDH don't strike me as a particularly 'male' band.
T: We got them with words.
R: Arguments with the manager, arguments with one of their girlfriends whilst they were on stage; abusing the audience, abusing the band, stuff like that.
A: That was last week, but going backwards a bit-what actually made you pick up your various instruments.
T: Well it was either drums or guitar for me.
R: Hah, I've seen you play drums mate.
T: I don't know why I chose the guitar. I reckon that people are tuned into certain frequencies. Some people tune into the bass in a sound, or the rhythm in a sound or the top end like I do. If I listen to a record I focus on the guitars, melody-line and the lyrics. Tall skinny people seem to do that naturally. I was about 11 when I picked up this toy guitar, that was lying around in my house. It was totally unplayable. Finally when I was 12 I bought my first guitar. It was compulsory to learn an instrument at the school I was sent to, so I chose guitar.
A: Can you remember the first song you learned?
T: I never tried to learn anyone else's songs, from the first time I picked up a guitar I was writing my own songs. I had written about 50 songs before I'd even picked up a guitar, just vocals. I'd just record the melody line without instruments. I did it between two tape recorders, sing into one and play it back, while singing along into the other one.
A: Very industrious.
T: Yeah,
I did a double album before I was 11, I'm not joking.
A: And you Raife?
R: Same sort of thing-my brother is a musician, well slightly and whenever he was playing guitar I'd always pick up wooden spoons and be the drummer in the 'miming act' when we were listening to music. One of the guys that worked for my Dad had a drumkit in the back of his car. I asked him to teach me. I practised every night for 3 years. Well until I joined MDH. I've only been playing 5 years.
A: You don't think people should start young then?
R: No I don't, the most important lesson I've learned in my short career is what not to play.
A: Do you think there is a central message to your songs?
R: I think they're about Tim's lost relationships. Normally, our happier songs are the throwaway ones-whilst what we enjoy playing, and perhaps our best material is about something more fucked up.
T: Its difficult to say, I think I've written a lot of songs about things that hadn't actually happened when I wrote them, although they did later. I wrote a lot of heartbreak type stuff, when I'd never really been through what I was writing about. Then I went through this really unhappy relationship and I'd be playing songs I'd written before it, and thinking I wouldn't change a word. I think songwriting can be quite premonitionary in a way, I've heard people like Pete Townshend say this. I'd like to think my songs are quite heartfelt, the lyrics often seem to be striving for some kind of happiness even in bad situations.
A: Which lyric sums you up best then Tim?
T: "Perhaps I'll find love on the night bus home", from 'Nightgames' (a song that'll be on the next lp).
A: Put these in order of merit: food, music, women, religion, government.
T: Women first definitely.
R: Really?. What about music?.
T: Come on, if you were on a desert island and you had to choose between a woman and a guitar...... I'm sorry, fuck the guitar.
R: Religion last.
T: I don't know. I think I'd put government below religion. Food would be pretty low on my list though, I went three days without eating recently, and it wasn't a problem.
R: Food, music, women on top, oh I don't know..............
A: Ok, so just to test MDH on how nineties they are. Who is currently number 1 in the UK singles chart?
T: Britney Spears or something.
R: I know this, the Venga Boys.
A: Which blockbuster film currently stars Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne?
R: The Matrix.
A: Who is the Chancellor of the Exchequer?
T: Gordon Brown, is it?
A: How many times a week is Eastenders shown?
R: Including the omnibus?
A: Yes.
R: Four.
A: 'My Drug Hell' a pretentious name for a band-discuss:
R: Shut the
fuck up.
T: Its meant to be a joke-I don't think its pretentious in the least. Its meant to put a smile on people's faces.
R: The bigger the band becomes, the less it seems to matter.
T: And its subversive as well, if we can get that onto daytime radio then I'll be really fucking pleased.
A: If you had to be someone else for a day who would you be and why?
T: A woman-it would be good to know what that is like. In some form, so that I could have a shower.
A: Any particular woman?
T: One with big tits.
R: Mo Mowlam?
A: Judy Finnegan?
T: No, I'd be Russ Meyer.
R: Hugh Hefner.
A: Are you bored by the press banging on about your sixties influences and commitment to vinyl?
T: I don't think they really do that much, the ones that only go on about it are just lazy journalists. I've no problem with the sixties thing-in a way I'm surprised they don't go on about it more. On the subject of vinyl, that's partly why I did the bonus track on the CD version of 'Bus Stop' ('Bonus Track No 9', a sixteen minute spoken word diatribe against CDs and all things digital); to once and for all get it out of my system, so I wouldn't have to talk about it ever again. And its good, because now no one seems to want to ask me about it in case they can't shut me up.
A: Fair enough, not wanting to get into a debate about this-but, how do feel about the format being kept alive by triple deck DJ wizards and bands like Portishead and Massive Attack-who couldn't be further from your genre?
T: Its funny that a supposedly out-dated format is being kept alive by what's seen as the cutting edge of music, but it seems to be true. I don't know how many of the DJ's use vinyl because of the convenience for mixing or for the way it sounds. I'd like to think it was for sonic reasons, but in a way it doesn't matter, whatever it takes to keep the format alive.
A: How low would you stoop in order to become a commercial success?
T: Doing a beer commercial for TV!. I think that if in five years time, the chance was offered to me again to do an advert, and the band hadn't progressed commercially-I would take the money!.
A: What are MDH's plans for the immediate future?
R: Start recording the next album, and we've got a festival to do in August called Terrastock. Its being put together by Ptolemaic Terrascope, a really hip magazine you'd swear was American, but is actually English and based in Wiltshire!. This years festival is in London, the last two were in New York and San Francisco. Apparently they're chartering a plane to fly in a load of U.S. underground bands, as well as a bunch of fans!
T: Yes, and we'll be releasing another single shortly. The a-side will be 'Maybe We Could Fly', and the b-side will be 'For Your Eyes' and hopefully a live version of 'Teen Psycho Nightmare No 99'. The plan is to make a video for each of the tracks.
A: A novel idea.
T: Yeah, I wanted to make a video for every track on the last album, but everthing got so fucked up, we lost a drummer and the label went bankrupt, so I feel I'm making up for lost time really. Each of the videos will be shot by a different director and we're going to try to finish the lot for £850. One will be on 16mm black and white, one on colour Super 8 and the other on scratchy VHS. I also want to finish a book I've been working on and make a porn film, that'll probably be in September.
A: Busy bees.
T: Yeah as I said making up for lost time, and it gives us something to do between now and recording album two.
A: When will that be exactly?
T: I don't like to hold us down to dates, because I usually end up being disappointed, but soon.
R: The band is now finally coming together.
T: I think our last show was a defining moment for us, sometimes I think we've been playing safe, a bit by numbers. I think the material now has finally started to breathe the way I want it to.
A: So you'll have to have a massive row before each recording day to get steamed up?
T: Ha, I don't know. When we recorded 'You Were Right, I Was Wrong' for the last album we had a massive row that morning, really horrible, and thats one of the best cuts on the record.
A: Tim and Raife, thank you for your time.
T and R: Thank you.
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